Consider this: Dear graduates. . .

...
“It’s like singing ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ at the World Series. Nobody came to hear you. But it’s not an official event unless you do it. And the only time anybody will remember you is if you screw it up real bad. So I hope not to be too memorable on this occasion.”

Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass, speaking at Harvard’s commencement.

“Fortunately, I wandered into a course in international politics taught by a Soviet specialist, a man named Josef Korbel who had a daughter named Madeleine Albright. And with that one class, I was hooked.”

Former secretary of state Condoleezza Rice, speaking at Southern Methodist University.

“Nothing I did where the only reason for doing it was the money was ever worth it, except as bitter experience. Usually I didn’t wind up getting the money, either.”
Neil Gaiman, author, speaking at the University of the Arts.
“The poor fill our jails and prisons. They stumble into our emergency rooms, wheezing, limping, with blood leaking from holes never intended by God or nature. They sit in waiting rooms hoping for a sympathetic ear, which can stave off homelessness ... . They stand on lines for food, or clothes, or whatever is being given away for free. ... I have a most wondrous proposition for you. Come join our team. We’re losing. Yes, that’s right, we’re losing.”

Geoffrey Canada, Harlem Children’s Zone, speaking at the University of Pennsylvania.

“If you have had success, you have also had luck, and with luck comes obligation. You owe a debt, and not just to your gods. You owe a debt to the unlucky.”
Michael Lewis, author, speaking at Princeton.
“This is what distinguished the great from the mediocre: They didn’t fail less; they rescued more. This in fact may be the real story of human and societal improvement. Risk is necessary.”

Atul Gawande, physician and author, speaking at Williams College.

“To get where you’re going, you have to be good, and to be good where you’re going, you have to be damned good. Every once in a while, you’ll succeed. Most of the time you’ll fail, and most of the time the circumstances will be well beyond your control.”